The Tale of Xiao Ranshao
by Vincent Van
Summary: Experience the world of Avatar through the eyes of Xiao, a drifter, destined to cross paths with an earth bender with moxie, a moose lion, the Fire lord's son, a deserter, and maybe even the Avatar himself.
1. Chapter 1

_I thought I'd try my hand at Avatar fiction, since to be honest, I like my ideas, a lot. Enjoy, and (every chapter will begin with my phrase) Take care._

The Tale of Xiao Ranshao

Flashback 6 years ago: A ten year old boy stumbled through the woods at night with the dim light of his town burning in the background and the smoke choking out all life around him. The boy heard an animal nearby. He was frightened, but it turned out to only be a cub, a saber tooth moose lion cub, abandoned and lost, like him. The boy picks it up, and the two stare straight into each other's eyes, the fire danced in both pairs of eyes, creating a deep bond of understanding.

The boy carried off his new best friend saying to it, "It's not safe here, we need to keep moving, and not look back."

* * *

Ch. 1 Wildfire

A mysterious teen lumbered into town on what was possibly the world's largest moose lion ever. The teen dismounted, but allowed his beast to wander so they could both find their own meals. The teen entered a restaurant in the slow afternoon hours, hoping he would get some quiet. The teen was greeted by the jeering of some local ruffians. The teen ignored their jibes, and instead sat and waited patiently to be served. The server, an Earth Kingdom girl asked for his order.

"I would like a hot meal." The teen requested.

"I haven't seen you around before, what's your name?" She asked with a clearly interested, but laid back attitude.

He answered reservedly. "I'm Xiao, with an 'X'."

"That's funny, like that old scary story, about a ghost town called 'Xiaoville'." She joked.

The teen lost his smile. The girl didn't notice however. "One hot meal coming right up, Xiaoville." She told him, in a frustratingly happy manner as she left to make the order.

The ruffians, then approached. "Hey punk, you better leave town now, unless you want things to get interesting." The leader threatened.

All of the ruffians cackled in support. Meanwhile, the punk, nonchalantly sat there and politely asked them to sit down, allow him to enjoy his meal, then he'd be on his way.

The ruffians didn't like this. They pulled out their weapons and the leader even held his large axe up to the teen's neck. In an instant, the teen drew his two handed sword, slashed the axe in half, and sheathed his sword. The ruffian stood confused, looked down to see his axe, in half, on the ground. This outraged the ruffians into attacking. Xiao took down the first, then the second. He was having difficulty with the third, as the serving girl jumped into the fight.

She was an earth bender, and a good one at that. The two fought side by side against the remaining ruffians. Then the leader came back into the fight, also earth bending. The leader slammed a huge boulder through the ground into the teens. The girl simply crushed her way through it, but Xiao, he got smacked square in the chest. Xiao felt it, the pit, the power, the rush, the rage, the pain, the burning feeling inside of him. It was coming. Xiao dropped his sword. He stood there, his hands burst into flames.

"Duck!" Xiao yelled.

Then the rest of his body, the restaurant, and everything in between burned.

Aware of the carnage he had caused, Xiao escaped the burning restaurant. He was greeted by a larger than life moose lion with a disappointed look on its face.

"Don't give me that look, Yi." Xiao detested.

Xiao and Yi became one force, rider and mount. Then Xiao felt something behind him, he didn't turn back to see it however. He just needed to leave, to spare this town any more of his 'problems'.

* * *

_Character: Xiao Ranshao (Small Burning)_

_traveling companions: Yi (base: move), unnamed girl_

_fighting: fights with a two handed sword, but can sometimes fire bend_

_Workings of the inner mind: he feels guilty, he cannot control his destructive powers_

_goals: he wants to control, or lose his bending, to be free of his 'curse'_

_appearance: wait for chapter 2_

_approx. time: happens at the same time as book 1-continuing_


	2. Chapter 2

Oh yeah! Chapter 2 is out. Take care.

Ch. 2 the Gemstone

Once Xiao was a good distance from the village, he slowed down his ride's pace and looked to see what he felt behind him.

"Well that was neat! But what are we gonna do now?" the waitress girl asked him.

Xiao was flabbergasted. "What!? Who!? Why!?" Then Xiao took a deep breath to relax his thoughts. "I have to admit, you are the strangest person I've ever met. And that's saying something."

"We haven't officially met yet; I'm Ai, earth bending master in training." Ai greeted. "And you're a fire bender, care to explain what you're doing in the Earth Kingdom?" Ai questioned simply, with an undertone of seriousness.

"Umm… About that, I'm kind of on a mission to lose my bending…" Xiao evasively answered.

"WHAT!" Ai Shouted. "You have to be kidding me! You actually want to lose your fire bending? Well, there's a first time for everything I guess."

Xiao leered at the teenage girl. She was about his age, maybe a year older. She had long dark brown hair, bright blue eyes, a working class robe, underneath she had on a full body jumpsuit (he would ask about that later), cheap foot guards that only partially covered her feet, and also hiding under her main attire she wore a multi colored crystal on a chain around her neck.

After a few seconds Ai realized Xiao was staring, "Hey Xiaoville, up here buddy."

Xiao blushed slightly in his embarrassment, and then thought about the last time he saw himself in his reflection in a lake. He was greeted by a young man with hot white spiky hair that just covered his eyes, his eyes were a very light shade of brown with a touch of pink (yes, pink), a few minor cuts on his face, disguising his small scar on the side of his lower lip, a red tank top, a pink short sleeved jacket, baggy white pants, and sandals.

Xiao was very perplexed by this girl, so he decided to play a little game. "Hey Ai, I have an idea, how about we have a question for a question game, you know, we each ask and answer a question truthfully, sound fair?"

"Okay, as long as I get to go first." Ai agreed. "First one, why do you want to lose your bending?"

Xiao thought for a moment. "I guess I don't have to get rid of it, but I have to keep it in control, otherwise I could destroy everything, and that would spur all kinds of people into wanting me dead, or worse, make me fight for them."

"If you're dressed so poorly, what's with that bling you're hiding?" Xiao questioned.

Ai grabbed the necklace under her robe. "Good eyes. It's a family heirloom, before my parents died in the war, they gave me this gem, and they told me it would help me save lives in the future. Good enough?"

Ai then asked her next question. "Have you ever heard of 'Gemstone'?"

"Huh, No, Should I have?" Xiao asked.

Ai looked crestfallen. "Well, yeah, she's only the roughest, toughest, super hero around!"

"Okay… my turn," Xiao began, "Are you Gemstone?"

"Of Course I am!" Ai exclaimed while posing.

"Hold on, if you're supposed to be fighting crime, or whatever, why are you following me?" Xiao asked out of turn.

Ai answered anyway. "For starters, I wasn't too keen about a fire bender going around burning buildings," Ai glared. "But when I realized you weren't a soldier, I decided to do some reconnaissance."

Ai then thought for a second. "Can I ask how did you do that fiery thing, and not even get burned a little?"

"I wish I knew." Xiao sighed. "The best I know, some people long ago had an immunity to fire, but the whole exploding on accident, is completely new."

"I have one more question…Where are we going?" Ai asked.

"We're going to find the lowest, dirtiest, darkest pit we can find, and we're going to hope that it will be enough to keep the army off my trail." Xiao conveyed.

Ai took a good look around her. "There's no army after us." Just then a huge column of fire back in town flew into the sky like a beacon of anger.

"Never mind."

* * *

Character: Ai

traveling companions: Xiao and Yi

fighting: stupidly direct as in one hit KO earth bending

Workings of the inner mind: she feels responsible for the deaths of her parents, and seeks protect others from that pain (i.e. batman)

goals: defeat the fire nation/ find out who killed her parents


End file.
